Serious liming & partying

If it’s one thing Trinis take seriously, it’s partying. Our reputation as the party animals of the Caribbean has been hard-earned and we do our best to maintain it. In addition to the numerous rum shops, holes in the wall and casinos (aka private members’ clubs) popping up across the island, Trinis love to put on their dancing shoes and head out to a club on the weekend.

Friday and Saturday evenings (weeknights too) on Ariapita Avenue in Woodbrook become virtual street parties as the crowds spill out of the many bars and onto the sidewalks, while others drift to and from the street food stalls and vans. From July to Ash Wednesday, the social calendar is taken over by literally hundreds of all-inclusive band launch fetes (massive parties), concerts, and boat rides where you will hear the soca hits for the year played and performed by the big bands.

Fashion & jewellery

Of course you have to look good since Trinis are extremely fashion-conscious. Designers from Trinidad have an edgy style and you can pick up the perfect little black dress, an abstract batik gown or funky suit that would rock any runway. Some of the top names to look out for are CLD, Ecliff Elie, Adrian Foster, House of Jaipur, Heather Jones, K2K, the Lush Kingdom, Meiling, Millhouse, Claudia Pegus, Pilar, The Cloth, and the Wadada Movement. For those looking for breathtaking hand-crafted jewellery in precious metals and stones, check Chris Anderson, Gillian Bishop, Janice Derrick, Akilah Jaramogi, Barbara Jardine, Rachel Rochford, Rachel Ross, and Jasmine Thomas-Girvan.

Theatre: our world onstage

Productions of both local and foreign musicals, plays, and experimental performances are staged by commercial, university, and community theatre companies. There are stand-up comedy acts as well. Look for shows at Queen’s Hall, the National Academy for Performing Arts (NAPA), Central Bank, Little Carib, Big Black Box, and Trinidad Theatre Workshop (Port of Spain); the CLR James Auditorium and University of the West Indies (UWI) in the east; and Naparima Bowl and SAPA (the southern campus of the NAPA) in San Fernando.

Dance: all the right moves

We love to dance. Any opportunity we get, Trinis will start dancing. We are credited with inventing the limbo, after all. Originally an event at wakes, it was popularised by our own Julia Edwards, a dance pioneer who appeared in several films (Fire Down Below, 1957) and toured the world in the 1960s, performing the dance.

Another one of our dance legends, Beryl McBurnie, founder of the Little Carib Theatre, was the first person to promote Caribbean dance internationally. When the acclaimed dancer Katherine Dunham arrived in New York in 1938, it was McBurnie who gave her private lessons in the rhythms and dances of the West Indies. She also taught Dunham ritual Yoruba chants from Trinidad and dances such as the bongo — a dance, like the limbo, done at wakes — and kalinda, where stickfighting opponents dance (carre) in between exchanging blows!

Schools and dance companies present in a range of styles — regional folk dance (including the indigenous limbo, bongo, and bele), ballet, jazz, modern, and Indian classical, plus experimental multi-media productions at many of the same venues as listed for theatre (above).

Ready to move it, move it?

If you want to dance (or can’t quite get the hang of this wining thing!) and want private lessons or classes, look no further than these two women-only studios (sorry, fellas): SHE Casa (Curepe, 398-8406) and Provocative Fitness (Woodbrook, 339-9496), which also offers pole dancing and aerial hoops (for children as well). The N9 Dance Studio is a one-stop studio for belly dancing, pole dancing, hip hop, salsa, merengue, cha cha cha, tango, flamenco, East Indian contemporary dance. There is also a kids’ studio (Port of Spain, 623-8134/758-1110. To learn the Afro-Brazilian martial art capoeira, check out Senzala Capoeira (Port of Spain, 764-8304). Mixed martial arts are quite popular and dojos can be found from Port of Spain to Arima, as well as Chaguanas and San Fernando.

Members of La Danse Caraibe perform at Queen’s Hall. Photo by Marcus Antoine

Literature & books

For book lovers: book launches, readings and lectures take place at the National Library, the universities of the West Indies and Trinidad & Tobago, the National Museum, at bookstores (like Paper Based and Nigel R Khan), and during the Bocas Lit Fest (see our Festivals section)

Publishers: a handful of companies produce books and magazines, including Paria Publishing and MEP (our publishers, who also produce magazines like Caribbean Beat, and books of Caribbean interest under book imprint Prospect Press).

Film & cinema

The film industry has long been earmarked for growth, and incentive and rebate programmes have made the islands an attractive location for filming. Work by locally-based and Caribbean diaspora artists are on show at the annual T&T Film Festival (see our Festivals section). Some home-grown features also get runs at local cinemas (the most popular of which are MovieTowne in Port of Spain and Chaguanas; Caribbean Cinemas 8 in Trincity and San Fernando; and the Digicel IMAX in Port of Spain). The UWI Campus Film Classics and European Film Festival (usually in May) host special screenings of regional and foreign indie films.

Music

Music, like dance, is in the Trini DNA. Tony and Grammy winning singer/actress Heather Headley; Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Angela Hunte; award-winning rap/hip-hop artist Nicki Minaj; and the late, celebrated performer Geoffrey Holder are all Trinidadian. Of our indigenous music, these are among the most significant:

Calypso dates back to pre-Emancipation times, when slaves created songs as a form of praise or derisive social commentary, and rose to international popularity in the 1930s–50s. Soca — calypso’s up-tempo progeny born in the 70s and incorporating Indian musical influences — is the islands’ party music. Some hits have become international sensations. Calypso and soca are the building blocks for a range of other fusion forms.

Chutney: born of Hindi folk songs and instrumentation (like the sitar and dholak drums). There’s also a hybrid with soca (called, you guessed it, chutney soca!).

Tassa is a drum-driven music central to the Muslim festival of Hosay, but the drums are fused with other musical forms and celebrations year-round.

Parang is Trinidad’s Christmas music, with origins in Venezuela, and featuring instruments like the cuatro, box bass, and maracas, and lyrics usually sung in Spanish.

Indigenous music is only the beginning. Some of the most distinctive groups include fusion bands Freetown Collective, jointpop, and Kin Sound System; the rapso of 3canal; and local rock, and reggae, and jazz artists like Vaughnette Bigford. Groups like the Marionettes, Southernaires, Lydians, and Love Movement present western classical, opera, and Broadway, and are particularly popular at Christmas time.

Exodus steelband at Panorama in Trinidad. Photo courtesy TDC

Non-stop shopping

As with everything else, Trinis have taken shopping to the extreme. You can buy just about anything here: from top brands in fashion, watches, jewellery, gadgets, phones, computers and sportswear to cars and gourmet food. If you can’t find it in one of the major malls (Long Circular, The Falls at West Mall, Trincity, Gulf City, Grand Bazaar, South Park Shopping Centre, Centre Pointe Mall, Centre City Mall), it’s sure to be in one of the many plazas that seem to be sprouting up everywhere (the older ones are Ellerslie Plaza, Price Plaza and MovieTowne Mall).

For local art, craft, fashion and accessories, check out the artisan markets (Green Market Santa Cruz, UpMarket at Woodbrook Youth Centre), and for Indian goods, look out for the Indian fair at Macoya (east) under the big tent, and the smaller ones in south and central.

Heidi Walcott-Hadeed and Caroline Taylor with Anthony Fund and Kevin Huggins on set filming the sequel to the popular Trinidad & Tobago film A Story About Wendy. Photo: Anthony Keung Fatt

From “MOKO JUMBIES: The Dancing Spirits of Trinidad” by Stefan Falke: Rodney Barrow, right, in his custom-made White Bat costume, deploys his fabric wings in front of John Sterling, who is testing his Jumbie Bat gear as the rays of the setting sun outline the stunning shapes of the twenty foot wingspan at the Keylemanjahro School of Art & Culture founded by Glen De Souza in 1986.

Tassa drummers liven up the streets of St. James during the Muslim festival of Hosay as ‘tadjahs’ (model mausoleums) are paraded to commemorate the martyrdom of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Photogaph by Edison Boodoosingh

The Happiest Man Alive, Machel Montano, is a pioneer of the airborne wine. Courtesy Machel Montano

Chris Leacock has been opening (club) doors for T&T’s music through remixes, including Bunji Garlin’s ‘Differentology’. Photograph by Ken Wolff

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